The middle class has become the focus of the political situation as a result of statements by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador in morning conferences, and it is also one of the groups that has been most affected by the passage of the Coronavirus through Mexico, according to the World Bank.
This has led us to question, who belongs to this socioeconomic level in Mexico? Because there is no single concept as such in the country, in addition to the fact that we have an erratic conception of the economic-social class to which we belong.
The World Bank (WB) defines the middle, vulnerable and poor classes by income levels per capita.
What is the middle class?
A middle-class person earns between $ 13 and $ 70 a day. That is, at today’s exchange rate ($ 19.81), between 258 and 1,387 pesos per day, or between more than 7,740 and 41,610 Mexican pesos per month.
“The middle class are households that have a low probability of falling into poverty, but they are not rich,” reports information from the WB’s Equity Laboratory for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Most of those who are considered in the middle class range have access to services and goods such as: electricity, drinking water, internet at home, private cell phone, sanitation and refrigerator, according to the study The gradual rise and rapid decline of the middle class in Latin America and the Caribbean of the World Bank.
They work mostly in the service sectors, followed by industry. They are generally salaried and independent workers. On average, in the countries of the Latin American region, the level of education is higher than complete secondary school.
Are you falling into vulnerability?
After the passage of the pandemic in Mexico, different families stopped belonging to the middle class. In 2019, middle class people represented 30.6% of the total population, and in 2020 they represented 27.6%, the study refers.
“Last year the COVID-19 pandemic pushed 4.7 million people from the middle class to vulnerability or poverty in Latin America and the Caribbean, possibly reversing decades of social progress,” says the international body.
A person is considered to be in a situation of vulnerability to poverty, when he has an income of between 5.50 and 13 dollars a day, and in a situation of poverty when he receives less than 5.50 dollars a day.
What about poverty?
Although the social programs promoted by the governments in Latin America in the face of the pandemic, have helped to mitigate the increase in inequality and poverty in countries such as Brazil. In Mexico poverty increased considerably, the population level in this situation went from 20.7% in 2019 to 24.8% in 2020, the study detailed.
During 2020 and in Latin America, the middle class fell to 37.3% of the population from 38% in 2019, the vulnerable class grew from 38% of the population to 38.5% and people in poverty represented from 22% to 21.8% of the population.
“Social protection programs must be reevaluated to adjust their scope and incorporate new beneficiaries. Income transfers are useful to provide vulnerable groups with some kind of financial security during periods of confinement, but they are temporary and may not be enough to prevent a sharp decline in the middle class, ”warned the World Bank.
To carry out this study and the case of Mexico, the WB considered some elements of the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (Inegi) such as the National Survey of Household Income and Expenditure, carried out in 2018.
